There’s no question that Chase Elliott is a member of the Shane van Gisbergen fan club. SVG has won four of this season’s first five road course races in the NASCAR Cup Series (and finished sixth in the other road course outing).
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Starting from the outside pole, the Trackhouse Racing driver—whose previous triumphs this year came at Mexico City, Chicago (street race), Sonoma, and Watkins Glen—has a chance to win a fifth road course event this Sunday at the Charlotte Roval.
Before the Kiwi driver came along, Elliott was considered among the top road course drivers on the Cup circuit. But he has watched as van Gisbergen has taken that title away with his domination on road and street courses.
“There’s no question he’s done a fantastic job,” Elliott said of van Gisbergen during Saturday’s media availability at the Roval. “I’ve always tried to give him the credit that I think he deserves for the discipline and how good he is at it, and I think that should be celebrated.
“I’ve always been a fan of if a guy’s dominating something, so what? Writers and fans should celebrate that, and then us as competitors should figure out how can we make ourselves better to try and recapture where the bar has been set.”
Much of the reason why SVG has succeeded so quickly on NASCAR road courses is that the New Zealand native was used to so many road courses in his previous racing stint in the Australian V8 Super Car Series, where he won three championships before flying over the Pacific Ocean to try his hand at NASCAR racing.
“There are some similarities that I think that have helped him make that transition into these cars,” Elliott said of SVG’s prior experience in the NASCAR-similar Super Cars. “But then you look at his Xfinity success on that side, he’s also very good in those cars, and that’s nothing like he came from. That’s why I say, he’s a great talent and we shouldn’t take that away, either.”
While ovals have been hard to learn, SVG is showing promise
Granted, SVG has struggled learning American ovals, but he’s slowly getting there. For example, last Sunday at Kansas, he finished 10th, his career best finish on a Cup oval.
“He has certainly raised the bar in a lot of ways on the road courses,” Elliott said. “Why is that? He’s a great talent, no question. He has a number of years of experience driving cars very similar to this. So, I think you just give credit where it’s due, and I think he’s a good racer. He’s always raced me with a lot of respect, and from my perspective, I just want to get better and try to put myself and our team in the ballpark to go up there and run with it.”
In Elliott’s seven Cup starts at the Roval, the Hendrick Motorsports driver has two wins, three top fives, and five top 10 finishes, while SVG has only one start at the unique track, finishing seventh in last year’s race there. It remains to be seen how either of the two drivers will handle the Charlotte infield and banking this time around.
